The trouble with beauty

In addition, a medical beauty industry white paper by iResearch Global said 19 percent of Chinese medical beauty consumers were aged 18 or under. Last year the proportion of such consumers under the age of 19 was 15.5 percent.

On July 20 last year, during the last preoperative diagnosis, the young woman had an x-ray and CT scan done. The doctor used a very thick black pen to draw various crossed lines and patterns on her face to facilitate the operation. Then he asked her to wash her face, brush her teeth and make preparations for the operation.

At that point, the woman says, she felt nervous, began hyperventilating and said she needed to go to the toilet. Eventually she managed to calm down and returned to the operating theater.

As she approached the operating table, she was gripped by fear, she says, terrified that the operation would be botched and that she would end up with a facial wreck like some she had seen in photos when she had done her research.

She tried to calm herself by being philosophical, saying to herself: "If this operation does not achieve what I want it to I just have to be calm, happy and accept myself."

Nevertheless, she was on the brink of mental collapse, she says.

"When the light from the operating table hits your face you feel terrible, but you've paid your money and it's non-refundable. You still have to do it, so you must have the courage to do the operation. It's over."

The operation lasted about four hours. After waking up, the effect of the anesthetic had not totally worn off, and the woman was confused and felt faint. She then discovered that her nose and chin were covered, but that the rest of her face was bare.

It would then take her seven days to recover before she returned to the hospital to have sutures removed. She would then need many months for facial stiffness to ease, swelling to go down and other problems to disappear.

During the basic recovery period her nostrils were stuffed with cotton wool and she found it difficult to breathe, she says. The doctor told her not to lie on her back, and she could not sleep well. The prosthesis was also still embedded in her chin, so it was difficult for her to eat, and liquid porridge became her staple meal.

During that time she lacked the energy to do much, she says, so she restricted herself to sitting on a bench and resting-a bloody nose constantly increasing her worries.

Feeling as though she were suffering from a grave illness, something she had not foreseen before the operation, the first days after the operation had left her in a regretful mood, she says.

"Why, oh why did I spend all that money to go through all this?" she asked herself.

Removing the stitches, the doctor used tweezers to pull them from her nose one by one, and she sobbed in agony as he did so.